INVASION OF INDIA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 267, 18 December 1909, Page 3

INVASION OF INDIA.

FEARS OF NEW FRONTIER WAli. AFGHAN DISCONTENT. Bombay, September 10. Rumors of trouble in Aighamsian .ue responsible for the beTiel in military circles that another frontier war is impending. Happily this view receives :<o official support, though it is acknowledged that a cloud has arisen, no bigger pcrhap6 than a man's hand, yet pregnant with dire possibilities. The troubles began soon after the signing of the Angio-Russian Conveiiti.jli in 1907. Although this agreement is a practical guarantee against either lirtish or Russian aggression of Afghanistan, the Amir has always imagined that it contains secret clauses for the pail.ition of his country. This suspicion led Habibullah Khan to abandon a safeguard on which his mo.e experienced father insisted. The Anrr has not merely permitted but encouraged his subjects to arm themselves, and traders in the Persian Gulf have provided the rilles. A few years ago the only men who bore arms were the soldiers of the Amir. To-day every Afgh.-ji who can buy or steal a rille is armel. The means of creating'trouble, therefore, exist, and the conditions also 'ire there.

Neither the Amir nor his brother Nasrulla Khan is very popular with ill" people. The oppressor may go far in the East if he .opens his purse Amir Abdur Rahman was a stern ru:;r but a generous giver, and his subjects forgave him much. But Habibullah the Amir anil Nasrulla Khan take all that is offered and- give nothing in return. Hence their unpopularity witu the Afghans. The Amir is not —as sor.-ie people suppose —a weak man. He - ! s, however, an indolent ruler and delegates his duties to others. Nasrulla Khan has taken full advantage of this characteristic of his brother and has added to a reputation of energy a reputation for sanctity. He affc-.ts both the society and the dress of th? mollahs. or priests, and his religious fanaticism is not less obviuii? than his hate of the British, who rule across the border in India.

In the opinion of men whose knowledge and judgment entitle them '.o prophesy, one of two things must hap pen ?n lime. ISither There will be ci rl war in Afghanistan or there will he war on the Indian frontier. Now that the people are armed for the first time since the reign of Abdur Rahman they are r.ot likely to submit tamely to oppressi--.ii. The alternative commends itself n-it only to fanatics but even to intelligent Afghans. They are satisfied that an invksioh of India would be followed immecliately by a rising in India. Victorious, the Afghans would strengthen the Mihatamedan faith; defeated, thi-y would be relieved of rulers for whim they hive neither respect nor affection. That is the attitude of the intelligent Afghan, and the risks it holds are obvious.

This problem cannot escape the vigilance of the new Indian Commander-in-Chief, General Sir O'Moore Creajfil, whose experience oh the frontier and intimate knowledge of the natives will doubtless aid him to a resolution.